Need some feedbak with my Pale Master

[DarkGospel]

***Thread Updated 11/03/2013***
Thank for all the feedback and advice. I LRed my pale master to be able the make the changes easier and after some thinking I got the conclusion that as 1st life it's pointless to try getting a high Spell Pen I wouldn't have near enough for drow content even with Epic Spell Pen so if I go with Magister and Epic Spell Pen I would get at maximum 44 spell pen, really not worth the sacrifice on other aspects and I'll probably just TR this toon as soon as I can of course I'll farm items before TRing.
I got my hands on a +5 tome from Manbar and a Spell Storing Ring and started flagging for Shroud.

I have some questions about what items would be worth to farm for when I TR.
1) Is it really worth to get Might of Abishai set and Diabolist's Robe for the initial levels on the current game? If not please give me some suggestions of better gear.
2) I'm leveling up my crafting levels so anything worth crafting for low lvl TRed wizards?
3) I'm currently trying to get Wrath of Sora Kell set, I already have a Kardin's Eye and 2 Robe of Shadow (one lvl 16 and one 24) and the robe from madness quests I'm up for farming Litany, also looking into Concordant Opposition and SP GS gear. Are there any more notable item for leveling up?
5) Are Glacial Assault set and DT robe still worth the run?

Class/Level: Wizard 18
Race: Human
Past Lives: N/A

Hit Points: 331
Spell Points: 1750

STR: 18
DEX: 9
CON: 26
INT: 36
WIS: 11
CHA: 18
*32 point

Feats:
Human: Toughness*
Wizard: Maximize Spell (1), SF: Necro (5), SF: Enchant (10), Heighten Spell (15)
Base: Insightful Reflexes (1), Extend Necro (3), GFS: Necro (6), Spell Pen (9), GSF: Enchant (12), Greater Spell Pen (15), Empower (18)
*maybe swamp for Mental Toughness or SF: Evo, most likely SF: Evo
**will be taking Quicken at lvl 20

Spell Stats:
Spell DCs: Necromancy – 38; Enchantment – 34; Conjuration/Illusion – 32; Evocation – 32; Others – 32
Spell Penetration: 22 (17 level +1 enhancement +4 feats)

Skills:
Balance: 9 (10 base -1 dex)
Concentration: 42 (21 base +8 con +13 item)
Haggle: 10/22 (6 base + 4 cha +0/+11 item) 1st life so yeah
Heal: 10 (10 base +0 wis)
Jump: 14 (10 base + 4 str)
Spellcraft: 47 (21 base +13 int +13 item)
Spot: 10 (10 base +0 wis)
Tumble: 5 (1 base -1 dex +5 item)
UMD: 14 (10 base +4 cha)

Saves and Damage Avoidance:
Fort: 19
Ref: 24
Will: 16
Damage Avoidance:: Currently mostly due to Blur and Displacement

Enhancements:
Wizard: Pale Master (36 ap): Core line VI (5ap), Neg. Healing Amp III (3ap), Neg Spell Crit IV (8ap), Necro Focus (2 ap), Intelligence II (4 ap), Improved Shrouding (2 ap), Efficient Metas: Quicken (2 ap), Bone Armor III (3 ap), Cloak of Night I (1 ap), Deathless Vigor III (6)

Wizard: Archmage (32 ap): Archmage specialization: Necromancy IV (4ap) for access to Enervation as a SLA and +1 necro DC, Spell Critical III (8 ap), Spell Penetration I (2 ap), Energy of the Scholar I (2ap), Intelligence II (4 ap), Efficient Meta – Maximize III (6 ap) and Heighten II (4 ap), School Mastery - Necro (2ap),

Gear:
Trinket: Kardin's Eye
Head: Helm of Archmagi
Necklace: Charismatic +4 Necklace of Spellsight +13
Goggles: Charismatic +1 Goggles of Inner Focus +13 (with Colorless augment slot)
Bracers: Health +6 Bracers of Dogde 3%
Body: Robe of Shadow (lvl 16)
Cloak: Charismatic +6 Cloak of Bluffing +3
Ring: Charismatic +4 Ring of Spellsight +7 (urgently needs a better ring)
Ring: Inteligence +6 Ring of Narutal Armor +1
Boots: Feather Falling Boots of Tumbling +5
Gloves: Dextrous +1 Gloves of Dodge 6% (with yellow augment slot)
Belt: Ogre Power +6 Belt
Main hand: +3 Potency Scepter of Void Lore
Off hand: +3 Magnetism Scepter of Lightning Lore/+5 Nullification Scepter of Fire Lore
Quiver: N/A
*too many charisma items but but they where the only ones where I found Inner Focus +13 and Spellsight +13

Standard Spell Load-out:

Level 1: Jump, Expeditious Retreat, Night shield, Detect Secret Doors, Magic Missiles
Level 2: Blur, Knock, Invisibility, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray
Level 3: Displacement, Rage, Haste, Frost Lance, Chain Missiles
Level 4: Negative Energy Burst, Death Aura, Dimension Door, Stone Skin, Icy Storm, Enervation (SLA)
Level 5: Niac's Biting Cold, Eladar’s Electric Surge, Cone of Cold, Teleport, Ball Lightning
Level 6: Circle of Death, Chain Lightning, Necrotic Ray, Acid Fog, Greater Heroism
Level 7: Finger of Death, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, Mass Protection From Elements, Delayed Blast Fireball
Level 8: Polar Ray, Black Dragon Bolt, Sunburst, Summon Monster VIII ( Bezekira)
Level 9: Mass Hold Monster, Wail of the Banshee, Meteor Swarm

[tammyaline]

Well not sure where to start, you have some changes that need to be made but at this point you are best to get to 20, and TR to do wizzie again. I didn't notice in your post if you are a first life wizzie but time to make that a 2nd ... then a 3rd. If you don't like the grind, Use an xp stone to speed things up.

I have a 28 level pale master that I absolutely love. Her necro dc is at a 62, spell pen is a 61, and Int at a 66 with Yugo and ship buffs. She is sitting at 749 Hps and 2945 Spell Points. I am able to walk all over Epic hard and if I drain mobs first, most epic elite mobs are taken down first try. I have increased my cold so that I have a decent back up for red names and epic deathwarded mobs.

I am not saying that my way is the best or only way to make a pale master, it is only my version.


Toughness - I always take this first feat no matter what I am making
Empower
Maximize
Extend - Ditch this ... I don't have it and don't really need it. Shortens buffs and auras but all in all you are an instakill toon. Extending not needed.
SF Necro - Must have
GFS Necro - Must have
Mental Toughness - Must have
Improved Mental Toughness - Must have
Insightful Reflexes - Ditch this ... just know your quests for traps and stay out of the way ... You shouldn't be in the middle of trouble and if you are, self heal and gtfo
Heighten - Must have
Spell pen - I would take spell pen and greater spell pen, and potentially epic spell pen if you don't have past lives. If you have the time, do some wizzie past lives and even fvs lives if you can. think about going elven for race to get the bonus to spell pen. Drows are tough and need spell pen so the underdark expansion needs this for the most part.
Quicken - MUST have (nothing like getting disrupted when you are trying to heal yourself!)
Augment Summoning - Skip this for sure. Pets are for other classes imo and in raids you will just **** off people if you bring pets ... usually a nono
Epic SF Necro - Must have
Epic Mental toughness - Could live without ... but if you can fit it, take it.

Epic destinies - Max out your necro dcs through magister and take all the int you can get
Twist 1 - I have twisted in the bard tier 3 - I think its called echoes of the magister or something to that effect. gives +1 int. +2 spell pen and a few other goodies.
Twist 2 - Spell pen from draconic - I have been told my spell pen is overkill, so I imagine this can be switched out. I like the light resistance too, so maybe that would be a good replacement
Twist 3 - +10% spell points in the FVS line. nothing like more sp!

Enhancements- This is personal preference ... Again take all the int you can. Take elven as a race and pick up the spell pen (I am sure many would argue on that one... but again its my opinion)

Gear - with the random loot gen items of recent the options are limitless. Here are a few of my suggestions.
gloves of the illusionist ... gives a +11 to int ... best in game currently and a +5 to illusion dc. I didn't care about illusion till I put the gloves on then realized my PK hit SO much more.
Necro nether orb ... my recent addition. adds a +5 necro DC. this can be done through random loot generated items but cant find siphon anywhere else I don't believe. Opens up your other hand for a scepter with augments slots.
+3 exceptional intelligence - quite a few options here. planar focus in a trinket slot. Fielld goggles. Blue Helm. Spider Silk Robes.
Spell pen 5 item
Robe of Shadow if you have one is alright to get to level 28 but I am in the middle of finding myself something better as it doesn't offer much at end game. I would skip the blue robes personally.
Find the highest Con item you can, find a vitality item and false life item for HPs. Many raid leaders will boot you if your HPs are too low.
Spell point items - Shroud SP item, Wizardy X (250 sp,) and if you can find one and fit it in, the large guild augment slots can gives you a small boost (it also stacks with the 10% bonus sp Twist of fate, so its more than I want to let go right now.)

Surprisingly you will have lots of extra spots for gear. Its all about the enhancements, past lives, and destinies.

Alright I have gone on enough. Message me if I can help further :)

[DarkGospel]

Thanks. :)

Incredibly there isn't that much too change since you would only ditch augment summon, extend and insightful reflexes and about those I would never ditch insightful reflexes it's just personal play style I rather have high reflexes since it's not only for traps but also for saves against ray and aoe spells I don't see much point on dropping it. About extend it's personal taste again since I the only thing I hate more than low reflex on wizards is recast buffs it's so annoying that I usually keep it till my buffs last long enough to don't need it anymore and them swamp for something else, well it's personal taste so there is not much to do about it.

Yeah it's a 1st life 32 point build and though TRing would be great I aiming for completionist with this toon so probably won't get wizard lifes again till I finish getting completionist, also I'm up for endless grinding for +5 tomes on every stat actually don't plan on TRing before getting it on every stat so I won't have to worry about it latter, for now I'm just trying to make this one useful on epic for me to be able to attain +5 tomes and items for my next life.

So I was wondering what would be a secondary spell focus I'm a fan of disintegrate so I was thinking about swamping extend to SF Transmutation but if CC is better than I would take SF enchantment instead.

[Andoris]

Thanks. :)

Yeah it's a 1st life 32 point build and though TRing would be great I aiming for completionist with this toon so probably won't get wizard lifes again till I finish getting completionist, also I'm up for endless grinding for +5 tomes on every stat actually don't plan on TRing before getting it on every stat so I won't have to worry about it latter, for now I'm just trying to make this one useful on epic for me to be able to attain +5 tomes and items for my next life.

So I was wondering what would be a secondary spell focus I'm a fan of disintegrate so I was thinking about swamping extend to SF Transmutation but if CC is better than I would take SF enchantment instead.

If you are really looking to grind out +5 tomes for all stats (this is going to be a significant amount of effort btw), then I would highly recommend that you take at least one TR now so you can get at least 1 wizard past life. The active past life feat for wizards is amazing for any casting class (and if you going for completionist, there are a lot of caster lives that will benefit from a couple wizard PL's).

On spell school selection, I would highly recommend Necro and enchantment, and you might even want to go enchantment primary as it will be easier to get high enough dc's to be effective in end game content.



Toughness - willing to swamp if it proves not useful anymore
Empower
Maximize
Extend - plan to swamp for SF enchantment or SF Transmutation for disintegrate but not sure since it's nice for my death aura
SF Necro
GFS Necro
Mental Toughness - mostly for the extra spell critical chance since the amount of extra sp it gives is insignificant
Improved Mental Toughness - same as Mental Toughness and I'm willing to swamp it for anything better
Insightful Reflexes


my plan for the lvls still to come
lvl 15 spell pen and heighten
lvl 18 Greater Spell Pen
lvl 20 Quicken or Augment Summoning - I'm not fan of quicken actually never needed it but also not sure if augment is worth a feat slot even if it is to boost my skeleton
lvl 21 Epic SF Necro or in case I keep improve mental toughness Epic Mental Toughness
lvl 24 Epic SF Necro if not taken on lvl 21
lvl 26 Epic Destiny: Epic Spell Power Cold or Negative - maybe
lvl 27 Epic Spell Pen - if nothing better
lvl 28 Epic Destiny: Epic Spell Power Electricity or Necro - maybe


Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness are somewhat wasteful feats. Toughness is not needed, but the extra hp can be useful if your gear is poor. Augment summoning is useless, as the summons are really not good for much. Quicken is a must have feat. Mobs hit for too much damage in epic content for concentration to be reliable (even on EH). Casting speed is another reason for Quicken, without it spells like Otts Dancing ball, fog spells, and the all important Neg Energy Burst, are almost too slow to be reliable.

On Insightful reflexes, you are spot on. It is one of the most important feats on a wizard. I am not sure what content that Tammyaline is playing, that they think high reflex saves are only not needed, but that is horrible advice. What ever you do, don't drop that feat -- all the spell points in the world are useless, if you are on your back or dead.

Here is a breakdown of the feats I took:
Wizard: Maximize Spell (1),SF: Necro (5), SF: Enchant (10), Heighten Spell (15), Quicken Spell (20)
Base: Insightful Reflexes (1), PL: Wizard (3), PL:Bard (6), GSF: Necro (9), GSF: Enchant (12), Spell Penetration (15), Empower Spell (18), Great Intelligence (21), Great Intelligence (24), Great Intelligence (27)
Destiny: epic SP: Negative (26), Elusive Target (28)

As you don't have the Past life feats, a good substitution would be Greater Spell Pen, Toughness, or Extend. As for the epic feats, I would recommend enough intelligence feats to get you to an even number, then with left overs take a epic spell focus (or more intelligence if it will get you to the next even number).



Need some help with end game gear I was thinking of Epic Blue Dragonscale Robe since the normal one used to be good but aside from that I have no idea what would be good for the current end game content


Blue scale is lackluster now thanks to the change to arcane lore. Basic idea for gear is to cover your primary spell dc's, spell pen, spell power and lore for negative and your primary element, and then put everything else towards damage avoidance and survivability. Feel free to check out my guide (linked in sig) for some ideas.

Good luck!

[DarkGospel]

If you are really looking to grind out +5 tomes for all stats (this is going to be a significant amount of effort btw), then I would highly recommend that you take at least one TR now so you can get at least 1 wizard past life. The active past life feat for wizards is amazing for any casting class (and if you going for completionist, there are a lot of caster lives that will benefit from a couple wizard PL's).

Took a look at your guide, having numbers to compare with makes things easier to see. Seems I can't get to max int since I'm human so with a lot of luck and hard work considering I can get my hands on a +5 tome on the current life I would be sitting at max of 68 - 70 instead of the ideal 74 - 76, also I would get to a max of 63 Necro DC or max 61 Enchantment DC which I think is not that bad for a 1st life human wizard but only a max of 49 spell pen (with epic spell pen, destinies, archmage, items, Arcane Augmentation) since on your guide you stated the max would be 61 but the ideal is 55 since it would be a problem to keep everything at max since some sacrifices would be needed and I probably would have to choose between having 63 Necro DC or 61 Enchantment DC. One wizard PL x2 would get me to max of 53 now I see why more than one wizard PL are that useful.


Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness are somewhat wasteful feats. Toughness is not needed, but the extra hp can be useful if your gear is poor. Augment summoning is useless, as the summons are really not good for much. Quicken is a must have feat. Mobs hit for too much damage in epic content for concentration to be reliable (even on EH). Casting speed is another reason for Quicken, without it spells like Otts Dancing ball, fog spells, and the all important Neg Energy Burst, are almost too slow to be reliable.

Should I swamp those Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness to SF and GSF Enchantment instead?


On Insightful reflexes, you are spot on. It is one of the most important feats on a wizard. I am not sure what content that Tammyaline is playing, that they think high reflex saves are only not needed, but that is horrible advice. What ever you do, don't drop that feat -- all the spell points in the world are useless, if you are on your back or dead.

No worries there as I stated right after Tammyaline's post Insightful Reflexes is something I can't live without since it's not only for traps and saves me a lot against ray and aoe spells or anything else that requires a reflex save test, I would never consider dropping it independently what people would say, high saves are always useful on any build for any class.

Now considering I can't get max on everything this is how the thing would really work.
Wizard: Mental Toughness(1), Maximize(5), Empower(10), Heighten(15), Quicken(20)
Human: Toughness(1)
Base: Mental Toughness(1), SF Necro(3), Extend(6), Insightful Reflexes(9), GFS Necro(12), (15)Spell Pen, Greater Spell Pen(18), Epic Spell Pen(21), Greater Int(24), Greater Int(27)
Destiny: Epic SP Negative(26), Elusive Target(28)

If I spend a few feat change tokens I can swamp Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness to SF and GSF Enchantment.
So I would have max int of 69 could drop one Greater Int since 69 and 68 are the same or drop Epic Spell Pen in favor of one more Greater Int but spell pen would drop from 49 (with Epic Spell Pen) to 45, my Necro DC would be 63 (with 70 int) or 62 (with 68 - 69). From what you stated on your guide my HP should be fine even if I drop Toughness that if I manage to get max con item, false life, etc... should be able to get around 700~ HP guess the real problem are secondary school DCs and Spell Pen. I won't be able to TR any soon can't buy turbine points at the moment so I was planing to get the +5 tomes and items while I'm at it.

[Andoris]

Should I swamp those Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness to SF and GSF Enchantment instead?


That sounds like a great plan!



Now considering I can't get max on everything this is how the thing would really work.
Wizard: Mental Toughness(1), Maximize(5), Empower(10), Heighten(15), Quicken(20)
Human: Toughness(1)
Base: Mental Toughness(1), SF Necro(3), Extend(6), Insightful Reflexes(9), GFS Necro(12), (15)Spell Pen, Greater Spell Pen(18), Epic Spell Pen(21), Greater Int(24), Greater Int(27)
Destiny: Epic SP Negative(26), Elusive Target(28)

If I spend a few feat change tokens I can swamp Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness to SF and GSF Enchantment.
So I would have max int of 69 could drop one Greater Int since 69 and 68 are the same or drop Epic Spell Pen in favor of one more Greater Int but spell pen would drop from 49 (with Epic Spell Pen) to 45, my Necro DC would be 63 (with 70 int) or 62 (with 68 - 69). From what you stated on your guide my HP should be fine even if I drop Toughness that if I manage to get max con item, false life, etc... should be able to get around 700~ HP guess the real problem are secondary school DCs and Spell Pen. I won't be able to TR any soon can't buy turbine points at the moment so I was planing to get the +5 tomes and items while I'm at it.

Make sure you replace your two mental toughness feats with SF and GSF enchantment and your good to go. Its good to keep epic Spell Pen initially, but I would swap that out after you finish the drow content. So initially I would go Epic Spell Pen(21), Greater Int(24). By the time you hit lvl 24 you should be done with the MotU content, and then can swap to Greater Int (21), Greater Int(24), Greater Int(27) if that gives you a even Intelligence, or Greater Int (21), Greater Int(24), epic Spell Focus (enchant or necro)

On the destiny feats there are not really any stellar options. If you find yourself running EH content most of the time, I would swap Elusive Target out for another spell power selection.

As for TRing, remember you can also get a True Heart from turning in Tokens of the Twelve. Good news is that some of the best epic xp farms (Von3, Depths, Wizking) all can drop tokens/fragments, so while your leveling up you are also racing your way to getting enough tokens to TR.

[DarkGospel]

As for TRing, remember you can also get a True Heart from turning in Tokens of the Twelve. Good news is that some of the best epic xp farms (Von3, Depths, Wizking) all can drop tokens/fragments, so while your leveling up you are also racing your way to getting enough tokens to TR.

It's good to know well, since from those almost 4 years I've been playing it's the very 1st time I plan to TR so forgot about 'cause I never used it. XD
At least I won't have to wait 'till I can buy more points now. :)

[DarkGospel]

I'm going slow about it finally got to lvl 17 currently flagging for shroud. I used my free LR to make some changes so now it looks like this.

Human: Mental Toughness(1)
Wizard: Maxime(1), SF Necro(5), SF Enchantment(10), Heighten(15), Quicken(20)
Base: Insightful Reflexes(1), Extend(3), GSF Necro(6), Spell Pen(9), GFS Enchantment(12), Greater Spell PEn(15), Enpower(18), Epic Spell Pen(21), Greater Int(24), Greater Int(27)
Destiny: Epic SP Negative(26), Elusive Target(28)

Mental Toughness can be swamped to Toughness if I happen to ever need more HP. Assuming I can get my hands on good gear I could get to a max of 49 spell pen if I made some sacrifices. So I was wandering since this is a 1st life wouldn't be better if I went Draconic instead of Magister since even with Magister I I wouldn't have near enough spell pen.
I already started grinding some items from when I TR and was wandering is it worth to farm Chronoscope set for the 1st 6 levels or if there is better gear, anyway since nearly any trash gear works on low lvls it's not a problem and after the TRed pale master get to lvl 12-14 I can just equip Wrath of Sorakell set (ungraded version), a +6 con item, Madstone Skull, Litany or Kardin's Eye and anything else to help survivability like 6% doge, False Life, Mineral II equip for heavy fort and HP...

[bsquishwizzy]

I’m going to dispute some of the advice being given here.

I’m 100% on-board with 1 Toughness feat early on. Most PM tactics – especially solo – are very aggressive, and you will get beat on extensively. This changes in EE and maybe some EH. Having a healthy HP count is sorta worth it.

There will be those who will tell you to dump Concentration and Quicken everything because you’ll always get a spell off. If so, you’d better run with a nice stash of pots to recharge you between shrines, because Quicken is expensive, and hard to gear-slot something that reduces the cost of the ability. While I recommend taking Quicken, I also recommend a huge Concentration score as well.

On the subject of spell points, you want a large SP pool. Mental Toughness is highly attractive. Improved Mental Toughness might be overdoing it. Spell points plus a spell critical boost doesn’t suck. I keep hearing that it is a “waste” of a feat. I’ve done it with and without the feat…and I now always take the feat.

If you solo: Insighful Reflexes. Unless you’ve got some mad Mario Skillz, you will screw-up avoiding a trap. This eases the pain. I personally don’t take them because I usually PUG, and someone in the group is a trapper, and I usually don’t have much of a need for that kind of thing (I also am not a big zerg freak either).

Extend – I always take it. Continuously re-casting buffs (about a third of an arcane’s job) is wasteful, and it is easy to forget when they run out. Stoneskin is going to be your best friend at one point (see my comment about aggressive PM tactics), so you want that lasting as long as possible. Some people scroll-cast this, I always keep it in my spell selections. The same goes with Protection from Elements, Blur, and Resist Elements. Plus this extends your auras, which you really don’t want to have to re-cast in the middle of a fight.

Augment Summoning – this is playstyle dependent. If you use summons a lot for grabbing and keeping aggro, it’s worth having. In some raids they are problematic, but in many quests (especially solo) they are very beneficial. Summoning a Hezrou to teleport and grab aggro allows me to target and cast Web and Ice Storm at a distance. I never took this for my main wizzy this time around, with mixed results. You don’t need it. It is nice to have. It definitely isn’t useless.

I ground out a Robe of Shadow for lvls 16 and 20, and have not a lvl 24 – no regrests.

If you go full-on PM, you WILL want spell pen. Boost it whenever you can. A lot of your necro spells are subject to SR, and a crappy SR means you are going pure Evocations to kills stuff off. I went Elf, took spell pen feats and enhancements and equipment. My only problems exist with EE drow and the like. Plus if you split necro and enchant, both have a ton of spells that are subject to SR. You can ease up on your spell pen requirements by splitting necro and evocation, which means if you can’t instakill, you can burn / freeze / shock them into oblivion. Transmutation is also something to look into as Disintigrate becomes one of your best go-to range spells as it works on just about everything…including the stuff that are totally immune to a majority of your damage-dealing necro spells (like constructs, crystals, and undead in some instances).

I run dual-scepters, or a scepter and orb depending on the quest. At epic some easy stuff to bump your stats and be helpful are the War Wizard’s items in Eveningstar, and at lvl 14 the Blue Dragonscale robe is a HUGE help until you hit lvl 16 Robe of Shadows. I also craft rings that bump my abilities in each of the spell schools.

Heavy Fort is very nice. This is especially true when you switch into Lich and Wraith forms, where you end up having some 200% fortification. Being immune to crits really doesn’t suck.

False life items are a requirement, as is CON boosters, and you’ll want STR boosters to combat Weakness spells.

Farming Chronoscope for an Abashai set and a Diabolist Robe is a wise idea if you are going to TR. If you are looking for the epic set, don’t waste your time. By the time you get done farming the stupid things, you’ll already have better epic gear.

Anyhow, just my two cents.

[Teh_Troll]

You will want quicken in Epic. It's especially important for kill-stealing.

Toughness is meh now . . . but I believe I took it for one of my ED feats.

[Andoris]

I’m going to dispute some of the advice being given here.

I’m 100% on-board with 1 Toughness feat early on. Most PM tactics – especially solo – are very aggressive, and you will get beat on extensively. This changes in EE and maybe some EH. Having a healthy HP count is sorta worth it.

Toughness is only 31hp @ level 28. While more hp is always good, I can't justify spending a feat on it. If you have feats to spare go for it, but reading below it looks like you are looking to get a lot of sub-optimal feats.



There will be those who will tell you to dump Concentration and Quicken everything because you’ll always get a spell off. If so, you’d better run with a nice stash of pots to recharge you between shrines, because Quicken is expensive, and hard to gear-slot something that reduces the cost of the ability. While I recommend taking Quicken, I also recommend a huge Concentration score as well.


I don't know anyone that says dump concentration, but I wouldn't waste time thinking about it either. As a wizard you should have enough spell points to buy just about anything you want skill wise. Concentration is nice while leveling, and it can save you from a stray arrow when casting a spell -- but anything you are planning on casting in combat, at end game, should be quickened. It just is not possible to get concentration high enough to deal with the amount of incoming damage.



On the subject of spell points, you want a large SP pool. Mental Toughness is highly attractive. Improved Mental Toughness might be overdoing it. Spell points plus a spell critical boost doesn’t suck. I keep hearing that it is a “waste” of a feat. I’ve done it with and without the feat…and I now always take the feat.


Similar to toughness -- more Spell points are always good -- but feats are not free, to add this feat, what are you giving up?



If you solo: Insighful Reflexes. Unless you’ve got some mad Mario Skillz, you will screw-up avoiding a trap. This eases the pain. I personally don’t take them because I usually PUG, and someone in the group is a trapper, and I usually don’t have much of a need for that kind of thing (I also am not a big zerg freak either).


This is horrible advice, Reflex saves are not just for traps -- mobs throw spells too, and some of those spells hurt (Ice Ele's, I am looking at you). Why you would recommend someone waste a feat on 31 hp or 145 spell points, then tell them that +33 to reflex saves is not worth it is beyond me. I would drop a point of spell DC before I would even dream of dropping Insightful Reflexes, luckily I don't have to -- as I don't waste precious feat slots on wasteful feats.



Extend – I always take it. Continuously re-casting buffs (about a third of an arcane’s job) is wasteful, and it is easy to forget when they run out. Stoneskin is going to be your best friend at one point (see my comment about aggressive PM tactics), so you want that lasting as long as possible. Some people scroll-cast this, I always keep it in my spell selections. The same goes with Protection from Elements, Blur, and Resist Elements. Plus this extends your auras, which you really don’t want to have to re-cast in the middle of a fight.


Nothing wrong with extend, it can be a spell point saver (and great for lazy PM's), but not for most of the reasons above. For the most part your party buffs will last long enough without extend (who really needs a 52 minute GH) -- Death Aura and displacement are really the only two spells I would bother extending. If you can fit it in, great -- personally I couldn't find room.



Augment Summoning – this is playstyle dependent. If you use summons a lot for grabbing and keeping aggro, it’s worth having. In some raids they are problematic, but in many quests (especially solo) they are very beneficial. Summoning a Hezrou to teleport and grab aggro allows me to target and cast Web and Ice Storm at a distance. I never took this for my main wizzy this time around, with mixed results. You don’t need it. It is nice to have. It definitely isn’t useless.


Summons are next to useless, unless you are running HOX on a regular basis -- this feat has no place in your spell list. If you want to use summons as mentioned above, fine -- but who cares if they die a second or two earlier (as thats all augment summon is likely to get you), they were just distractions anyways.



If you go full-on PM, you WILL want spell pen. Boost it whenever you can. A lot of your necro spells are subject to SR, and a crappy SR means you are going pure Evocations to kills stuff off. I went Elf, took spell pen feats and enhancements and equipment. My only problems exist with EE drow and the like. Plus if you split necro and enchant, both have a ton of spells that are subject to SR. You can ease up on your spell pen requirements by splitting necro and evocation, which means if you can’t instakill, you can burn / freeze / shock them into oblivion. Transmutation is also something to look into as Disintigrate becomes one of your best go-to range spells as it works on just about everything…including the stuff that are totally immune to a majority of your damage-dealing necro spells (like constructs, crystals, and undead in some instances).

If you are running drow content, spell pen is nice -- for everything else it is a waste of time.

In Summary: I disagree

[DarkGospel]

I’m 100% on-board with 1 Toughness feat early on. Most PM tactics – especially solo – are very aggressive, and you will get beat on extensively. This changes in EE and maybe some EH. Having a healthy HP count is sorta worth it.

What difference does it make only 31hp? I only took it 'cause I had a spare feat slot and I'm considering swamping for maybe SF: Evo. Just to make things clear but I'm a highlander style player when I'm soloing and even so I don't get hit that much if 31hp is worth for you probably you don't have enough damage avoidance items.


There will be those who will tell you to dump Concentration and Quicken everything because you’ll always get a spell off. If so, you’d better run with a nice stash of pots to recharge you between shrines, because Quicken is expensive, and hard to gear-slot something that reduces the cost of the ability. While I recommend taking Quicken, I also recommend a huge Concentration score as well.

If you think Quicken is expensive I have just this to say it's only 10sp where is it expensive? Also highten consumes much more sp than any other metamagic and on level 18 I'm already running with it always turned on and never went out o sp before getting to a shrine so really only 10sp expensive? I don't think so and can always get improve meta quicken III.


On the subject of spell points, you want a large SP pool. Mental Toughness is highly attractive. Improved Mental Toughness might be overdoing it. Spell points plus a spell critical boost doesn’t suck. I keep hearing that it is a “waste” of a feat. I’ve done it with and without the feat…and I now always take the feat.

Well, it's a wasteful feat I had it before I LRed but not anymore and guess what I'm running with heighten and extend always active I don't run out of sp, the more used I get to instakill spells the less sp I waste lately.


If you solo: Insighful Reflexes. Unless you’ve got some mad Mario Skillz, you will screw-up avoiding a trap. This eases the pain. I personally don’t take them because I usually PUG, and someone in the group is a trapper, and I usually don’t have much of a need for that kind of thing (I also am not a big zerg freak either).

Wrong you you need reflex saves to improve your survivability against incoming enemy spells. I mostly solo unless it's not possible or I don't know the quest.


Extend – I always take it. Continuously re-casting buffs (about a third of an arcane’s job) is wasteful, and it is easy to forget when they run out. Stoneskin is going to be your best friend at one point (see my comment about aggressive PM tactics), so you want that lasting as long as possible. Some people scroll-cast this, I always keep it in my spell selections. The same goes with Protection from Elements, Blur, and Resist Elements. Plus this extends your auras, which you really don’t want to have to re-cast in the middle of a fight.

Very long ago I once had a wizard without it, sure it's nice for the aura, haste and displacement that have pretty low durations but it's not really needed as buffs will last longer with more levels. However I don't really care about that I always take it 'cause I'm lazy and think recasting is a pain.


Augment Summoning – this is playstyle dependent. If you use summons a lot for grabbing and keeping aggro, it’s worth having. In some raids they are problematic, but in many quests (especially solo) they are very beneficial. Summoning a Hezrou to teleport and grab aggro allows me to target and cast Web and Ice Storm at a distance. I never took this for my main wizzy this time around, with mixed results. You don’t need it. It is nice to have. It definitely isn’t useless.

This is wasteful summons are nearly useless above level 14, sure you can use them as expendable decoys to get mobs attention away from you and they die easily so not worth taken.


If you go full-on PM, you WILL want spell pen. Boost it whenever you can. A lot of your necro spells are subject to SR, and a crappy SR means you are going pure Evocations to kills stuff off. I went Elf, took spell pen feats and enhancements and equipment. My only problems exist with EE drow and the like. Plus if you split necro and enchant, both have a ton of spells that are subject to SR. You can ease up on your spell pen requirements by splitting necro and evocation, which means if you can’t instakill, you can burn / freeze / shock them into oblivion. Transmutation is also something to look into as Disintigrate becomes one of your best go-to range spells as it works on just about everything…including the stuff that are totally immune to a majority of your damage-dealing necro spells (like constructs, crystals, and undead in some instances).

Spell Pen is good when you have a wizard and/or FVS passive PL's but unfurtunately I don't so no matter how much sacrifices I make the highest I can get is 44 spell pen which is not near enough for Drow content so guess I'll just run other content till I have enough past lifes to have a decent spell pen. This 44 a said is considering Magister and epic spell pen.


Heavy Fort is very nice. This is especially true when you switch into Lich and Wraith forms, where you end up having some 200% fortification. Being immune to crits really doesn’t suck.

Actually all undead forms have 100% fortification not just Lich and Wraith besides Heavy Fort is a question of common sense and every toon need it independent of play-style.


False life items are a requirement, as is CON boosters, and you’ll want STR boosters to combat Weakness spells.

Any kind of hp item and CON boosts just like heavy fort are only common sense and need by just any toon. I'm not trying to be mean and thank you for the advice but any old player ever goes out without hp and Heavy Fort items.

Thanks but I disagree with most of it.